Analysis

The Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling on the Philippines’ case against China is a historic milestone in the evolution of the South China Sea dispute.

As one of the main parties to the dispute, Vietnam has welcomed the ruling, adding that it would make a separate statement on the award’s content. Once released, the statement will shed light on Vietnam’s interpretation of the ruling, and provide clues about how it might deal with the dispute in the future. [READ MORE]

The risk of confrontation between China and the maritime states of Southeast Asia has increased significantly.

On 12 July 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague ruled that China’s expansive claim to the waters of the South China Sea enclosed by its “nine dash line” map had no legal basis under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and China could not claim historical rights to resources within the enclosed area. [READ MORE]

Last week’s much anticipated ruling in favour of the Philippines’ claims in the South China Sea against China in the Permanent Court of Arbitration was decisive.

In its unambiguous dismissal of China’s ‘historic rights’ claims and in other respects, the ruling went well beyond what was expected. The unanimous decision by the Tribunal judges has big implications for management of one of the most hotly contested international issues in our region. [READ MORE]

Southeast Asia has descended into a maritime insecurity spiral since the April–June 2012 stand-off at Scarborough Shoal between Chinese maritime security forces and the Philippine Navy, which motivated Manila to initiate legal arbitration proceedings in The Hague.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration’s (PCA) ruling in favour of the Philippines will be difficult to enforce. To forestall an even more intense security dilemma in the South China Sea, regional policymakers should not lose sight of four vital underlying strategic trends. [READ MORE]

"An overwhelming victory" is how Paul Reichler, lead counsel of the Philippines, describes the Award issued by Permanent Court of Arbitration Tribunal in the case of Philippines v. China concerning the South China Sea (SCS).

The Tribunal unanimously granted all but a handful of Manila’s claims, and in doing so laid down a significant number of rulings that will reshape the discourse over the SCS disputes in the years to come. [READ MORE]

On Tuesday, the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration issued its final ruling in a landmark case between the Philippines and China over disputed maritime claims in the South China Sea. The object of intense global interest, the three-year-old case has come to serve as a bellwether for the kind of rising power China intends to be.

The ruling itself offered few surprises. As expected, the panel sided with the Philippines, finding no legal basis for China’s claims that it holds historic rights to most of the South China Sea. [READ MORE]

NEW DELHI: An international court’s stinging verdict, denying China’s claim to ownership of virtually the entire South China Sea, has put a spanner in the “China Dream” of President Xi Jinping and left him with a series of difficult options.

When he took over leadership of the Chinese Communist Party in November 2012, Xi made the China Dream – described as “the great revival of the Chinese nation” – his signature mission. [READ MORE]

China has firmly rejected and denounced the July 2016 award by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) at The Hague on the arbitration initiated by the Philippines on its dispute with China over the South China Sea.

China’s state-owned Global Times described the award as an “illegal verdict” which was “more radical and shameless than many people had ever expected,” and Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed the long-standing Chinese government position that China would not accept any claim or action based on the award, which it sees as an unjust infringement of its sovereignty. [READ MORE]

The unanimous ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (the “PCA” or “Tribunal”) in the dispute between the Philippines and China is a landmark decision under the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS) and represents a strong rebuke of China’s expansive claims to maritime territory in the South China Sea.

The PCA’s ruling serves not only as a technical legal decision, binding on the parties – China and the Philippines, but also as a broader message concerning the peaceful settlement of disputes in the South China Sea pursuant to a rules-based international order. [READ MORE]

WASHINGTON — After an international tribunal in The Hague ruled emphatically against China in a territorial dispute with the Philippines, many Chinese state media outlets responded on Wednesday by publishing a map.

It showed the South China Sea, with most of the waters encircled with the “nine-dash line” that has long represented China’s claims there. [READ MORE]